Wacky 3D 8GB DDR2 DIMMs unleashed

[Thrax]

<p>Fred Weber, the former CTO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) founded a firm known as MetaRAM in 2006. The company has been running well under the radar since its inception, leaving many to wonder what the firm with an auspicious leader was actually doing. Now we know!</p>
<p>MetaRAM is <a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080224-metaram-quadruples-ddr2-dimm-capacities-launches-8gb-dimms.html">now sampling</a> 8GB DDR2 DIMMs where 4GB was previously the maximum. They've designed an innovative stacking system for the DRAM ICs which crams two to four DIMMs worth of chips on a single stick.</p>
<p>The real magic, however, is MetaRAM's control chip which sits between the ICs and the platform's memory controller. This chip is really the voodoo behind the doodad, as it keeps the flow of traffic to and from the memory controller smooth and expedient. Without such circuitry, the whole shebang would be a train-wreck of high latencies and voltages. </p>
<p>The whole notion is really quite unique. On top of doubling today's maximum GB/slot figure, it maintains the same thermal and voltage envelope, meaning no kooky chipsets or BIOS tricks. While it's not as fast as, say, FB-DIMM, more memory in a high-load datacenter is never something to scoff at.</p>
<p>Bring on the threads!</p>

[mmonnin]

Blah blah I'm posting on a DRAM thread again...;)

So anyways, its basically a memory controller on the DIMM...and if someone were to make smaller chips we could see even more GB on one DIMM, which will happen, even for DDR2.

I'm tempted to suggest that "500GB of memory oughta be enough for anybody,"
Nevar!!! I'd like to see it though!

[Leonardo]

What quantity of the RAM could actually be addressed/used by Windows XP 32? Would there still be the approximate 3GB RAM limitation that XP (32 bit) currently has?

[Thrax]

3GB. These are for enterprise clusters anyhow, with ~500GB of memory in the first machine to make use of these sticks.

[mmonnin]

Yeah, if you look at the image of the DIMM at the link there are 2 rows of 9 chips. No desktop user wants ECC DRAM.

[Your Amish Daddy]

ECC?! I WANT SOME ECC!!

I told my brother about this stuff, and he's a novice at best and even he wanted some.

[mmonnin]

I dont think so, its error correction code. Its slower than normal DRAM and is meant for server type systems.

[drasnor]

What are the latency penalties for adding another memory controller?

-drasnor :fold:

[Thrax]

5/5/5 becomes 6/6/6.